Thanks to the fabulous cathandsaraforever55 for doing the beta thing.

Thanks to those of you that took the time to review my story, they make it more fun and appealing to continue.

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Chapter 7

Sara went straight to her locker, having forgotten that she still had the case files tucked under her arm. Sighing, the brunette wanted to get out of the building before Catherine found her and started yelling again. The younger woman didn't really care at this point; sure as she was that she would either get fired or moved to dayshift come next month. The brunette left the folders in her locker and left the Crime Lab.

Not knowing where to go, Sara only knew she had to get out of there.

Catherine had stayed behind in Grissom's office hoping to talk privately with the man. Gil was trying to ignore the blonde, but knew that Catherine wasn't one to let discomfort get in the way of what she wanted. Though, he wasn't giving her the satisfaction of starting the conversation as the blonde wanted.

Looking at her boss sternly, Catherine gave in and decided she might as well start.

"What are you planning to do with Sara?"

He knew he had been soft on his friend in the past. Though, he had never expected the blonde to be this sure of her position in the lab. Especially after what he had said earlier. Grissom thought that he had made himself clear, but apparently not.

"I'm not sure what my actions will be, but don't be too sure that Sara will be the only one affected."

Surely he doesn't expect me to believe that he would do more than reprimand me. That is just unbelievable.

The blonde was sure that Gil would do things as he always had before. He said that she would be affected too, but that was probably a ruse to cover his back for later.

Catherine wasn't usually this full of herself, but with everything that had occurred that day had her mind was all jumbled up. She hoped that Grissom wouldn't notice something was wrong.

"I can see that you're sure of your position in this lab."

The blonde couldn't help the smirk that flashed over her face. Catherine had to hope that Gil hadn't noticed. No such luck.

The nightshift supervisor was blaming himself for letting this spin out of control. He never should have let Catherine get away with breaking protocol on several occasions. If he had dealt with the blonde's behavior toward the younger woman, it would never have escalated to this point. Now he might be forced to move or even fire one of his best CSIs. The woman sitting on the other side of his desk had, had free range of the lab for far too long, and this was what he got for letting her sweet talk him.

"Catherine, I've let you get away with too many things in the past, but that ends now."

Something in the older man's voice had the blonde paying attention. Catherine believed that she would get no preferential treatment from her friend in this case. That was a scary thought and not something that the blonde was used to.

"I recommend that you find Sara, and the two of you talk all this out."

The blonde stared at him blankly. Does he expect me to make this right without any help from Sara?

"If I find out that you didn't try your hardest to fix this, I'll have no trouble getting you demoted or moved. Don't deceive yourself into thinking that you being my best friend will keep me from taking this action."

Grissom turned his attention back to his paperwork. The blonde didn't know how to react to what her friend told her. Catherine sat there waiting for something more to clear up what had happened.

Looking up again and seeing the blonde still sitting in his office. Gil said as dismissively as possible.

"Goodbye Catherine."

That for some reason was enough of a jolt to get the woman to snap out of it.

Quickly leaving the office, Catherine hoped that she could catch the brunette. What the blonde hadn't taken into account was that she had spent an extra 30 minutes with Gil after the younger woman left.

Not finding the other woman anywhere in the lab. The blonde send a text message hoping that Sara would at least give her this chance.

Please meet me at Suzy's 9 am tomorrow.

Lindsey would be asleep by now, giving the blonde the opportunity to talk to her sister. That way she could get an unbiased opinion on the matter without worrying about hurting any feelings. Even if she couldn't keep her temper under control. Nancy would tell the blonde when she was being an ass and what to do to start fixing it. Or at least point her in the right direction.

Showing up at her sister's after a crappy day was not something new, but it was unusual that Catherine knocked before midnight.

Without waiting for Nancy to open the door Catherine went in and headed for the kitchen. Her sister would be getting everything ready for the morning before going to bed.

"Hope you're not too tired. I screwed up and I might have run out of get out of jail free cards."

The blonde said this as soon as she saw her sister.

"Well hello to you too Cath. Nice to see you…"

The younger woman was grinning, but as she turned around to look at her older sister the smile disappeared. The expression on her sister's face was enough to stop the younger woman short.

"Oh sweetie, come here." Opening her arms and drawing her sister into a hug Nancy continued. "I'm sure it can't be all that bad. Gil has always helped you. He will have your back this time too."

Blinking to hold back the tears Catherine hoped that her sister wouldn't notice, or at least pretend not to. Nancy knew that her sister hated to feel vulnerable so the younger woman graciously let Catherine pretend and gave the CSI the time to get herself together.

In the course of the time it took Catherine to get a hold on her feelings, the anger from earlier resurfaced. Nancy had used the time to get the both of them a cup of coffee and seated at the kitchen table. Patiently waiting for the CSI to join her, so they could begin to fix whatever it was that had the older woman on edge.

When Catherine finally looked up from sipping her coffee, Nancy knew that her sister was ready to start.

The CSI told her about the conversation that took place in Grissom's office, but left out parts about her fight with Sara.

"Now tell me why Gil felt he needed to yell at you and threaten to fire you. There must have been some reason."

Catherine wasn't looking particularly proud at this point, but she had known that Nancy would pick up on the real problem. Didn't want to tell her sister what she had done to Sara. Especially after the CSI had talked about how hard it had been to begin gaining the brunette's trust in the first place. Catherine had even mentioned on more than one occasion, that she liked the time she got to spend with the younger CSI after they had stopped fighting all the time.

"You know how upset Lindsey was when we came here earlier?"

The younger woman nodded, not wanting to interrupt the CSI, at the risk of never getting to the bottom of this.

"Lindsey spent yesterday with Sara…" Nancy had heard about this planned Saturday for more than a week, so she knew.

"But apparently something went wrong when Sara came by my house, where mom was supposed to look after Linds."

"What do you mean apparently?"

"Lindsey started crying, and none of the three people present wants to tell me what happened."

Nancy gave her sister a doubtful look.

"Okay, you're right mom did say what happened. I'm just not sure anymore that, that is the real account of the event."

"You know mom has a loose sense of the truth, and that she usually twists it for her benefit."

"Yeah, but she never lied to me about Lindsey."

"You never caught her in a lie you mean. Why should you be special? You know why I don't want her in my life anymore."

Catherine was getting uncomfortable by the turn the conversation had taken. Of course she knew why Nancy had cut Lily out of the younger woman's and Jeremy's life.

It had all occurred a couple of years ago and the blonde still wasn't sure why she hadn't stood up for Nancy the way a sister should have. Nancy was always supportive, and now wasn't any different.

"I hoped that Linds would have said something, but she shut me out completely. You saw how she was tonight."

"Did it ever occur to you that the reason for Linds shutting you out is the same reason she was crying?"

Nancy didn't want to betray the younger Willows by telling her sister what had happened. But that didn't mean that the younger woman couldn't drop hints, hoping her sister wasn't too dense and caught up in her denial.

It was all getting to be too much for Catherine, and they hadn't even gotten to the part were the blonde yelled and screamed at an unsuspecting Sara.

"From your tone I know that you heard Lindsey's version, but don't want to tell me."

Nancy squirmed under the look the CSI gave her. Hoping that Cath would leave it at that. There was no way that the younger woman could resist her sister's questions if Catherine wanted to know what Nancy knew.

To avoid spilling her guts Nancy knew she had to change the subject and hopefully make the older woman forget about this.

"So what caused Gil to fly off the handle?"

"Nice change of subject sis."

Catherine grinned at her baby sister, who just shrugged. By the look in the CSI's eyes Nancy knew that they would continue the talk about Lindsey later. By now the younger woman knew that Catherine had more she needed to get out. This meant that Nancy was off the hook for a little while anyway.

Though, Catherine wasn't proud of her reaction toward Sara, it didn't mean that she wasn't still blaming the brunette.

"Sara didn't have the decency to call me when Linds got upset."

Interrupting her sister at the risk of having the wrath of Cath pointed her way.

"You mentioned that Sara said she left a message on your phone. Have you even checked this?"

Choosing to hold back the next logical part till Nancy knew that Catherine was ready to hear it. There were some benefits to knowing the CSI as the younger sister did. Nancy knew when to push and when to let the blonde come to her own conclusions. This was one of the latter.

"You know that my message service doesn't work, so there won't be any message."

The blonde had raised her voice before she remembered that there were two children sleeping in the house.

"The question is does Sara know that? And do you think that she would take advantage of it, if she did know?"

Nancy could see that these questions had hit Catherine where needed for the blonde to figure out her own feelings on the subject, and why the CSI always blew up when there were a change that Sara was involved.

Looking through her missed calls, Catherine saw that the brunette had actually called the night before, not only once but three times. Feeling embarrassed over jumping to conclusions based on her mother's say so. The CSI knew she should know better, than to believe what Lily told her.

Catherine wasn't ready to admit that she might be wrong. If she was honest, she couldn't handle more of this right now. She had to think things through before she had to face the brunette in the morning.

Nancy had already picked up on her sister's reluctance to continue, but for once the younger sister wasn't about to leave it at that. If the CSI was ever to work it out with Sara, Catherine needed to figure out what caused all these fights. This time it also affected Lindsey, which meant that Nancy wouldn't leave things alone.

"I know that you're on your way out of here and that you have a lot on your mind, but…"

Trailing off waiting for some kind of reaction from Catherine. The blonde raised an eye brow in response.

"Why do you always believe the worst of Sara? You know, you have to find out why Sara affects you this much. There is a reason why you let Sara have this control over you. That are what you need to think about Cath. If you can find these answers you'll have come most of the way to fixing this problem between the two of you."

The blonde's head snapped up as she turned to leave. The exact reaction Nancy had expected, and the younger woman knew that Catherine would be back when she had a chance to think things through.

On her way out the CSI raised her hand as a goodbye.

Catherine had so much stuff floating around in her mind, that it was a wonder she got home in one piece. The blonde had been surprised to find herself at home, because she couldn't even remember getting in her car.

Nancy had watched from the sidelines since the day that Sara came to Vegas. She found it amusing that since the day that the brunette stepped foot in the Crime Lab, the older woman had been bitching about the younger CSI for one reason or another. And to make the situation more humorous Lindsey was carrying on like Sara hung the moon.

She had watched Catherine having trouble coming to terms with the younger woman working in "her" lab. Complaining about Grissom bringing in his pet project, who was so infatuated with him that the brunette didn't have an original thought.

Nancy knew her sister, and that meant that she didn't entirely believe the picture that the older Willows painted of the other CSI. She also knew that there was something with this Sara that strongly affected her sister. Never in all the years, that Catherine had been with Eddie, had Nancy seen her sister getting this worked up over a person.

Nancy hadn't quite figured out what it was before, but now she was certain that her sister was attracted to the younger woman. The problem with this was that Catherine hadn't seen the obvious and until the blonde came to this conclusion on her own, there was nothing that Nancy could do.

During the time that the younger Flynn sister spent with both Lindsey and Catherine, Nancy had seen her sister cringe, whenever her niece mentioned the brunette. That had been when the girl hardly ever saw the younger CSI. Catherine hadn't included Sara in on the team get together if she could help it.

Nancy only knew of Sara through the complaining of her sister, and now Lindsey's worship. After that terrible night that left Lindsey without a father, Nancy had seen her sister come apart at the seams. The tirades about the brunette had become increasingly worse, as Catherine tried to convince herself and Nancy of the brunette's in competency during Eddie's case. She had often said that if any of the guys had been on the case someone would have been held accountable for his death. Nancy was sure that with the way her sister dealt with her problems, Cath's believes would have been made clear on several occasions to the brunette. It wouldn't have mattered to the blonde, what the cost of closing that case had been to Sara.

During the last months the mood of the blonde had changed in tact with the increased happiness of Lindsey. All caused by the brunette, Nancy was sure.

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Sara had received the text message from the blonde. She wasn't planning on coming. There really wasn't any good reason to pretend that Catherine would be affected by the outcome.

She had no idea why the other woman even wanted to meet with her. Maybe the blonde wanted to show Grissom that the problem was all Sara.

No there was no point to put herself in a position again where the older woman could call her stupid or whatever degrading term, that caught Catherine's fancy that day.

She would instead get herself ready to move to a new city, a new start. Again. Too bad, she had really started to feel at home in Vegas. She had even gotten friends, and thought that she had been making a difference in Lindsey's life. That had apparently not been the case, according to Catherine.

She would start getting her resume in order in the morning and contact some of her acquaintance. They would likely be able to point her in the direction of a lab in need of a CSI. Tonight though, she needed the thoughts in her head to stop for a while.

Turning the music up Sara started cleaning her apartment. Throwing things out was always a great way of releasing some of the tension. If she was going to move, this would give her a head start.

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Let me know what you think; bad, good or somewhere in between. I would like to know.

I'm off to vote now. We have to find our representatives to the European parliament and if we want equality in the royal family. I'm all for voting it's a part of democracy but did they have to make it on a Sunday!!